A Line in the Harry Potter Sand

Sister Mary Martha has a very interesting post on her blog . . . . I welcome the opinions of friends and readers.

Dear Sister,
Due to a recent discussion among some good Catholics I know the whole witch/magic thing has been on my mind lately and I'M SO CONFUSED!!!! I feel like everyone has their own adamant opinion of where the line should be drawn with reading that kind of stuff and I can't figure out where the line should ACTUALLY be drawn. Like is Harry Potter okay? What about Twilight? I feel like you have the Bible on one end of the spectrum and the satanic bible on the other and somewhere in between a line has to be drawn but I don't know where! Oh and if witches aren't real then why is this stuff a problem at all? HELP!
Clare

I actually think I can clear this up for you! You have to draw your own line. That's the simple answer. But it's not a shot in the dark. (Note from Soutenus:  I would add that your line just might be different than your child's. Age, formation, maturity and personality tendencies all must be considered)

Let's walk you through it.

Point #1. There are no witches, warlocks, werewolves, vampires, magic spells, potions or wizards.

There are, however, people who attempt to be these things. That doesn't mean they actually are these things, or that they have any magical, mystical powers.

Point #2. Evil exists. The devil exists. The devil is trying to win your soul.

Now, if you were the devil how would you go about that? If I were the devil, I would work with people who think they are witches and I would work on you to believe that they had some power over you.

The mind is the most powerful thing in this equation. It's easier to believe that the reason you never finish anything is because you are an Aries with Gemini rising, than to believe the truth, that you are a little lazy or scattered or unable to concentrate. The next thing you know, you're checking your chart to see what to do next. Thanks, Omar!

The question is, how seriously do you take this stuff? I think I can safely read Harry Potter. (I haven't, but only because I'm just not interested. I like to read about Abraham Lincoln.) I can do that because I fully understand that it is fully fiction and I can sit back an enjoy the fantasy world because it is just that -- fantasy.

As I have mentioned before, "The Wizard of Oz" is all about witches, too, but I don't hear anyone squawking about that delightful fantasy. Fairy tales are full of magic and sorcery and witches, too. Is anyone talking about banning the Brothers Grimm. Let me answer that: no.
Perhaps the Jehovah's Witnesses, on second thought.

If you want to dress up like Harry Potter or the Wicked Witch of the West for Halloween, great! Have fun!

But if your interest in Harry Potter causes you to study the black arts, or talk about it as though it were real, or question the Pope, then stay away from this stuff.

The Catholic Church actually wishes everyone would stay away from this stuff, but not because it is, oh, so dangerous. The Catholic Church has to take care of everybody, and everybody can't handle it. Mother Church can't take the chance on telling everyone to have at Harry Potter and then have some poor soul decide he is a wizard and run around in a pointy hat until he finds himself in Hell.

The Catholic Church will always warn you never to open the door to the devil. Isn't that the moral of the story of "Dracula"? Never open the door to a vampire. Evil = the devil.

I can't tell you whether or not to read such things. I can understand why some people are so adamantly against them. People are weak. We must guard the weak. (Another note from Soutenus - you may also want to read "weak" as: young, naive, ignorant, morally at risk, those who do not do well with peer pressure, etc.)

As long as you understand that witches and the like are not real at all, then they are no problems at all. The giant that lived at the top of the beanstalk is no threat to you and neither is Harry Potter.

Point #3: Do stay away from the "Twilight" series. It's not about vampires. It's about teenage sex and a heroine who is readily willing to risk her own soul to be with a vampire.  Thanks, devil!

 

 

 

No copyright infringement intended. All posts are fully cited for source and author. I have provided links back to the original source whenever possible. This information is for my personal, Faith Formation, Confirmation class, OCIC and homeschool referencing.
I am so very grateful to the authors, website and blog owners for sharing this information, commentary, and knowledge.
 

Pink Ouija Boards and Moral Relativism

If you have not read  The Clay Rosary Girl  you really must!  This is a post of hers (bolding is my emphasis). I have edited very slightly.

I just stumbled across an article on from Fox News about Pink Ouija Boards Targeting Young Girls. Yes, it's terrible that ignorant parents may be seduced into buying this cute portal to Hell, but the major underlying problem I have with the defenders of this game is not whether the game is good or evil, but that the mindset behind leaving the game on the shelves (or putting it there to begin with) is one based on the principles of moral relativism.

Moral Relativism is a much more subtle snare which also makes it satan's lure of choice for our modern era. Listen to what this unsuspecting pawn has to say about his pink ouija board.

Toy expert and consultant Chris Byrne said he found "absolutely nothing" wrong with any version of the game.
"And if something doesn't fit your value or belief system, you don't have to buy it," Byrne said. "There's absolutely nothing remotely Christian or un-Christian about it. I think people are projecting their belief system on it."

My problem, Chris Byrne, is that you have a problem with people projecting their belief system. The "hands and minds off" approach is not as innocent as it sounds. It's a version of moral relativism that has dire consequences to our world. A web page dedicated to moral relativism gives this definition:

Moral relativism is the view that ethical standards, morality, and positions of right or wrong are culturally based and therefore subject to a person's individual choice. We can all decide what is right for ourselves. You decide what's right for you, and I'll decide what's right for me

There is nothing wrong with projecting your belief system. I think that Ouija board is intrinsically evil and I don't want that to be marketed to young girls or on the toy store shelves. What's wrong with saying that? When someone doesn't know or has forgotten what is good for them, I believe that letting them know is only the Christian thing to do.

Too often in our modern world, we forget that it's ok to tell people what we believe and even to tell them what is right or wrong based on what we believe.

In fact, as a Christian, we are obligated to do just that, but we are called to do it out of love. I love my fellow human beings, and I don't want any unsuspecting young girls communicating with evil spirits while playing with their cute pink Ouija boards.

I'm reminded of the time my dear friend from home came back from her liberating college experience from St.Benedict's Catholic College in St. Joseph, MN . We were having another enlightening conversation (as college students usually do with each other) and I was trying to enlighten her on Catholic teaching (from my experience at Franciscan University) and she went on to reveal what her professors have schooled her in: Moral Relativism.

No, she did not use that term, but everything she said read like a text book definition.
She said that she doesn't feel that evangelizing is a good thing to do. (you see, moral relativist are really bad at keeping their number one rule: there are no rules)
Evangelizing, she said, is not good because it pushes our beliefs onto someone else. That's not respecting the other person's beliefs, she said.
For the record, evangelizing should always be done in the name of love and with concern for other's- never, never pushy.

But Evangelizing shouldn't be done because I might be telling someone what is for their own good?? How dare we say to another: you really shouldn't put your finger in that outlet, you might get hurt. If you think this seems like a far fetched example, let me give you another one. Imagine someone who wants to exercise some personal "freedom" by killing the baby in their womb. Now imagine a world where we cannot impose our beliefs on this person and tell them it might hurt the baby (and themselves).

I think moral integrity may be the opposite of moral relativism, but I'd have to think about that more.

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No copyright infringement intended. All posts are fully cited for source and author. I have provided links back to the original source whenever possible. This information is for my personal, Faith Formation, Confirmation class, OCIC and homeschool referencing.
I am so very grateful to the authors, website and blog owners for sharing this information, commentary, and knowledge.